Brexit is scheduled to officially take place on March 29, 2019. We're getting ever closer, but right now, it's an open question as to what's actually going to happen when the clock ticks over.

Professor Simon Tormey, an expert in European politics at the University of Sydney and himself a British expat, talked us through the possibilities.

The backdrop to all of this is ongoing disagreement about how to deal with Brexit

Earlier this month, the UK's Trade Minister Liam Fox said the odds were that Britain would crash out of the European Union without a deal, something British Prime Minister Theresa May denies

In late July, a Sky News poll indicated half of the country wants another referendum to give them a say on what happens next (with the same poll suggesting 51 per cent think Brexit will be bad for the country)

These are some of the possible outcomes come March 29 next year

Britain leaves after reaching an agreement with the EU on what their relationship will look like, for instance on trade and immigration — the closer the relationship, the "softer" the Brexit; the more distant, the "harder"

Britain leaves the EU without such an agreement — what's been called a "no deal" Brexit

But Professor Tormey says it's important to realise nothing actually has to happen

He predicts we're going to see lots of attempts over the next three or four months to kick the deadline further down the track.

"And I think the European Union will grant it because for them it's a no-brainer," he said.

Professor Tormey says the current March 29 deadline has been described as a "cliff edge", but it's not in the interests of the British Prime Minister nor the European Union to let that description prove accurate.

In fact, he can imagine the can getting kicked down the road so far that Britain remains in the European Union indefinitely.

He points out that Switzerland and Norway, which have never been part of the European Union but have nevertheless been transitioning towards it, have essentially been delaying making any final decision for the past 40 years.

They both participate in the EU's single market as well as the Schengen Area which removes border checks between signed-up countries.

In fact, there's a number of scenarios where Brexit could fall over altogether

The political situation is this: according to Professor Tormey, there's sclerosis in Parliament, so no matter what Brexit plan Ms May chooses to pursue, she's not going to get it through.

He says you could imagine her thinking, "How do we get ourselves out of this pickle without surrendering to a new general election?"

The reason she'd want to avoid another election, in his view, is that Jeremy Corbyn's Labour could win after having played smart politics watching the Coalition smash itself to bits.

"He's playing the long game. Jeremy Corbyn's view is he doesn't really care about Brexit, whether in or out. What he cares about is getting power, for the Labour party and himself," Professor Tormey said.

On top of that, Ms May would be aware of the talk that she could be stabbed in the back and replaced by hard-Brexit representative Boris Johnson, her former foreign minister.

So, with threats on both fronts, she could decide to call a second referendum.

Another scenario for a second referendum could be if Mr Johnson does become Conservative leader, goes to an election to get a mandate for a hard Brexit, and then gets beaten by Labour.

That's because if Mr Corbyn were to win, he'd probably need the support of minor parties like SNP, Greens and Lib Dems, all of which are Remain parties. As well, his position has always been that the will of the people needs to be respected.

If the British people are asked again, it's looking good for Remain

Professor Tormey says the polls tell us there's a very consistent 40 per cent of Britons who still favour Brexit, even if they're not happy with the way the British Government is going about it.

"There really are 40 per cent of people who are militantly attached to the idea of a kind of 19th century British sovereignty, they really do look back on that moment where Britain sort of ruled the waves," he said.

However, he says that leaves 60 per cent of people who don't support Brexit.

"When you offer a preference between no Brexit, a soft Brexit and a hard Brexit, actually no Brexit wins," he said.

Here, a soft Brexit refers to the UK leaving the Europe but staying in its single market and/or customs union. A hard Brexit, on the other hand, would mean leaving both and going it alone.

Professor Tormey says if Britain was to change its mind and decide to just stay, there wouldn't be any resistance from the European Union. In fact, he says it'd be delighted to keep getting Britain's money (as well as the political vindication).

Another possibility is that Britain ends up in a Norway-style situation

Professor Tormey says the mistake that people make is seeing the European Union as something that you're either fully in or out.

Already, that's not how it is for Britain — it's not in the Schengen Agreement, it doesn't use the euro currency, and it's not in a range of other EU treaties and agreements.

"So in a sense Britain has always had, if not one foot outside the European Union, then the heels or toes," Professor Tormey said.

Britain isn't alone in this either. Professor Tormey says there's really only 16 countries at the core of the EU, with another 11 countries having varying degrees of participation.

He says Britain's situation has parallels with that of Norway, mentioned earlier.

"In Norway, the pinnacle elites for the last 40 years have been dying to get in the European Union, but they've had two referendums and both times the citizens voted against," he said.

So instead, this happened:

"They created a hybrid relationship called the European free-trade area in order to allow Norway to participate in and benefit from the single-market and to be a kind of quasi member of the European Union," he said.

Professor Tormey could see Britain similarly not participating in the politics of the EU, but nevertheless remaining "pretty much" within its economic framework.

In any event, Professor Tormey isn't predicting a hard Brexit, or a no-deal Brexit, or a cliff-edge Brexit

He says it does feel "tremendously dramatic" as a historical moment.

"But I think in 10 years' time we'll see this moment as a kind of another bit of the British story of how it somehow managed to not be a full member of the European Union while being in a sense in the orbit of the European Union," he said.